


imagine adventure, imagine a story untold

by staystrange



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Anniversary, Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, sc season 7, scavenger hunt, they're really married aren't they
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29390541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staystrange/pseuds/staystrange
Summary: If you had told pre-Schitt’s Creek David that he’d one day intentionally wake up at 3am so that he’d be able to set up a surprise for his husband in honor of their one-year wedding anniversary, he would have started laughing at “intentionally wake up at 3am” and never stopped.-or-David plans a surprise scavenger hunt for Patrick in honor of their first anniversary.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Comments: 22
Kudos: 75
Collections: Schitt's Creek Season 7





	imagine adventure, imagine a story untold

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [SCSeason7](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SCSeason7) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> _7x13, The New Addition. Patrick sends David (or vice versa) on a scavenger hunt for his birthday, their anniversary, Christmas, whatever... And it takes him to a series of places that have a lot of meaning for them: Ray's, the Cafe, Town Hall, etc. But the final stop is a place that doesn't seem to have any meaning. Yet. What new thing happens there at the end of the scavenger hunt that adds this location to the collection of special place in their lives?_
> 
> I'm so excited to be part of my very first Schitt's Creek prompt fest!! I had such a blast writing this and I hope you all enjoy : ) Be sure to check out the other works in this prompt fest as well!!
> 
> Title: Imagine Adventure by Altered Sky, an absolutely beautiful song that I've loved for years

If you had told pre-Schitt’s Creek David that he’d one day intentionally wake up at 3am so that he’d be able to set up a surprise for his husband in honor of their one-year wedding anniversary, he would have started laughing at “intentionally wake up at 3am” and never stopped.

Now, though, David can’t imagine being anywhere else. He glances over at their bed and his sleeping husband, the moonlight streaming through the window illuminating Patrick’s face, and smiles as he scribbles something on a pink sticky note. Once he’s done, he holds the pen between his teeth (“Okay, fine, I have _one_ incorrect habit,” David had said when Patrick had called him out on it) and and gently places the sticky note on Patrick’s bedside table right next to his phone.

With a quiet sigh, David looks around the dark room at the life he and Patrick built together in this very house over the last year, starting on their wedding night when they stumbled home drunk in the early hours of the morning, too in love to keep their hands off each other. He’d wanted to do something special to celebrate their first year of marriage, something to rival all of the romantic gestures Patrick had planned through the years. To be honest, David didn’t think he could ever quite match Patrick’s knack for romantic timing, but he was sure as hell not going to let it be for lack of trying.

The idea came to him late one night when he was thinking back on their relationship, remembering Patrick’s love for both surprises and intricately connected puzzles. The first pen marks of the plan hit the pages of his black notebook within a few minutes, determined not to fall in the trap of conjuring a good idea on the verges of sleep only to forget about it in the morning. Over the last week, he’d secretly delivered sticky notes and crucial pieces of information to various places and people around their hometown of Schitt’s Creek, resorting to bribery in exchange for secrecy more often than he would have liked. This last piece couldn’t be put in place until the very last minute; David knows his husband well enough to know that he’d notice it too early if it existed in the house before it absolutely had to. All that’s left to do now is to crawl back into bed and cuddle with his husband until morning.

David smiles as he pulls the covers up and presses a soft kiss to Patrick’s shoulder.

———

Patrick wakes David up the next morning with a kiss and the smell of fresh pancakes. As David blinks his eyes open, surprisingly without the slightly obnoxious and incredibly adorable groan that usually follows, Patrick kneels down beside the bed so that he can be eye level with his husband of exactly a year. David sits up a little and sees Patrick, immediately breaking into a giant grin. “Breakfast in bed?” David asks, raising an eyebrow in a futile attempt to look incredulous.

“Yeah, why, is that incorrect or something?” Patrick asks, playing along.

David pauses a moment in false contemplation before shaking his head, finally allowing the grin to split his face in two. “No, of course not,” he says, accepting the tray from Patrick’s hands and patting the empty sheets beside him in invitation. “Not when it’s you,” he adds softly, just barely loud enough for Patrick to hear it and fall in love all over again.

“Can you believe that a year ago we sept in this bed together for the first time?” Patrick asks, climbing onto his side of the bed. He notices a pink sticky note that he hadn’t seen when he’d first slid out of bed to make David’s breakfast, and he furrows his brow in confusion as he picks it up.

“Yeah we did,” David says, and Patrick snorts, rolling his eyes at David as a smile blooms on his face.

“You know that’s not entirely what I meant,” Patrick replies. David shrugs, chewing on a mouthful of pancake and fresh maple syrup. They sit in comfortable, familiar silence for a moment, and Patrick looks at the pale pink paper. _1: mozzarella stick platter_ , it reads in David’s neat handwriting. He flips it over, hoping that the back would reveal a hidden secret, but to no avail. “Hey, David, did you put your shopping list on my side of the bed by accident?”

David shakes his head, wiping his sticky fingers on a napkin. “No, why?” he asks, and then his eyes fall on the note in Patrick’s hand. Patrick can tell he’s hiding something; he’s committed every single one of David’s many facial expressions to memory, and the way his mouth is pinched on the right side of his face can’t possibly mean anything else.

“David. You know I can tell when you’re hiding something, right? That’s what happens when you’re married to someone for a year, not to mention the two years we dated before that,” Patrick says, a soft smirk settling comfortably on his face.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” David claims, shaking his head.

“Hm, a bold claim,” Patrick replies, humoring him.

“It’s not my shopping list, Patrick,” David relents, crossing his arms.

“Then… I don’t know, do you want us to have Café Tropical mozzarella sticks for dinner? I had something much nicer planned, but we can pick some up if you want.”

“Maybe,” David says, his voice pitched a little higher than usual. “Why don’t we head to the cafe and see if Twyla has any?”

Patrick narrows his eyes. “Uh huh. I definitely believe that you want to get out of bed right now, without even finishing your breakfast that was prepared for you by your loving husband, just to go get freezer-burned mozzarella sticks from the cafe that we go to every single day.”

David hides his face behind his hand. “Okay fine, we should go to the cafe _after_ I finish my breakfast. And get dressed. And go through my whole skincare routine.”

“There’s the David I know and love.”

———

The cafe is busy with the brunch rush when they finally arrive. Twyla is occupied with carrying trays of food to two different tables, with food for two more waiting on the counter. As far as Patrick can tell, she’d only been working harder since buying the cafe, but her ever-present smile had only grown in the year since. Patrick can’t help but smile with a strange emotion behind it, something like pride.

He glances over at David, who had chosen that moment to rest his chin on Patrick’s shoulder, a smug-adjacent smile present on his face. He can’t help but lean in and press a kiss to David’s cheek as he waits for Twyla to have a free moment so he can ask about the mozzarella sticks.

“Oh hey, Patrick and David, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there. It’s just been so crazy busy,” Twyla says, her smile still bright on her face. “I can’t complain, though. It’s better than no business!”

Patrick nods. “I’m sorry to bother you during the rush,” he says.

Twyla tosses her dish towel over her shoulder and tightens her ponytail. “It’s no problem at all! You’re two of my best customers. Speaking of, can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Pancakes?” She smiles at David, who loosens his smug look to smile warmly back.

“Actually, I wanted to ask you about mozzarella sticks,” Patrick begins.

“Oh, we’re actually out of them, unfortunately. That table over there just ordered the last ones, which is really good because they have years of freezer burn on them.” Out of the corner of his eye, Patrick can see David cringe, and he takes David’s hand and squeezes it.

“That’s fine, I wasn’t necessarily going to order them.” He pauses for a moment, pulling the pink sticky note out of his pocket. “I think David left this for me this morning and I wanted to ask you if you knew anything about it.” He glances over at David, noticing that the smug knowing look had returned to his face, before handing the note to Twyla to examine.

Recognition passes over her face as she looks at the note. “Oh! Yeah! I was supposed to seat you two at the table you sat at for your first date and have a plate of mozzarella sticks ready for you…” She trails off, looking at the table in question where she had just taken an order from a group of people. The smile falters, and she bites her lip, shaking her head. “I’m so sorry, it completely slipped my mind.”

“It’s totally okay, Twyla, don’t worry,” Patrick says gently. He looks at David again, unsure how to proceed without upsetting either him or Twyla or both.

Twyla’s expression brightens again. “Why don’t you tell me about how each of you was feeling that night? Since we can’t recreate it physically, we can still look back on it emotionally, right?”

“Yeah, sure,” Patrick says, and David nods in agreement. “I definitely felt more nervous than anything, but I was just so determined to tell David —”

“Oh, wait, hold that thought, Table 4 needs me.” Twyla returns to the busy restaurant, weaving through the tables toward the back of the room.

Patrick can’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. He turns to David, deciding to just share his feelings with him directly instead. Patrick takes both of David’s hands in his.

“I was just so determined to tell _you_ how much I cared about you and wanted to be with you,” Patrick continues. “I wanted your birthday to be more than just ‘popping a pill, crying a bit, and going to sleep early,’ as you put it.” David chuckles at the memory. “When it hit me that you didn’t think it was a date, I was crushed. But then you fixed everything and made it all perfect, just like you always do.”

“I mean, I think Stevie deserves more of the credit on that one, because if it wasn’t for her talking some sense into me, I still would be convincing myself that you were straight and that this would never happen,” David replied.

“Fair. But you were the one who kissed me at the end of the night.”

David shrugs. “Yeah, okay, fair.”

They smile at each other for a moment, letting the ambient sounds of the busy cafe wash over them, before Patrick eventually breaks the silence.

“What was going through your head that night?” he asks softly.

“So much.” David takes a deep breath. “I was nervous too, because no one had ever taken me out for a birthday dinner before. And then you gave me your gift, and Stevie helped me figure out that it obviously was a date, and I felt so much hope, more than I’d ever felt since moving to Schitt’s Creek. I’ve never felt more right when kissing someone than I did kissing you that night.”

Patrick has to blink a tear out of his eye by the time David finishes speaking. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” David whispers in reply.

At that moment, Twyla rushes back over to where they’re standing against the wall by the door. “Oh my gosh, I just realized I forgot to give you this.” She reaches into the pocket of her apron and hands Patrick another pink sticky note, this one covered in cocoa powder with _2: general but kind of specific_ written on it. Patrick immediately knows this refers to their store, thinking back to the day they met and the first time he witnessed David’s eccentricities.

“Oh, we’re going on a Schitt’s Creek adventure today, aren’t we?” Patrick says.

“You could call it that,” David replies. “Or maybe… a scavenger hunt?”

“You’re adorable.” The words pass through his lips before he has a chance to stop them, not that he wants to. “This is such a perfect way to spend our anniversary, thank you.”

“Hey, don’t thank me until it’s over,” David replies, sidestepping the genuine compliment. “Maybe we should head to that next location.”

“Sure.” Patrick links his arm through David’s and opens the cafe’s doors, leading his husband across the street.

———

They had decided to close the store for the day so they could celebrate their anniversary together, so when they arrive, they find it empty and quiet. lit only by the early afternoon light streaming through the front windows. As soon as the door closes behind them, Patrick tucks himself into David’s side, wrapping his arms around his waist in a position that has become natural in the years they’ve been together. David reciprocates by settling his arm around Patrick’s shoulders, and for a few moments they look at the store they’ve built together along with their relationship.

“So who’s giving me the next sticky note, then?” Patrick eventually asks.

David’s mouth falls open. “Oh my gosh, Patrick, are you trying to rush through your anniversary gift?”

“Of course not, honey, I was just kidding,” Patrick replies, and David rolls his eyes as he pulls away from Patrick’s side to carry two chairs over to the space in front of the counter. He gestures for Patrick to sit beside him and pulls out his phone.

“So,” David begins, “I have something to show you.”

“Oh?” Patrick asks, raising his eyebrows.

David smiles softly. “Just watch.” He presses play on a video and turns the volume up, holding his phone so he and Patrick can both see clearly. It takes Patrick a moment to realize what exactly the video is and why it sounds so familiar, but after a moment or two he realizes it’s a recording of his performance of “The Best” at their first open mic night. He hadn’t even known that someone had recorded it, but he’s so grateful that someone did. Patrick watches himself sing, cringing a little at the sound of his own voice, but mostly smiling at just how much he can see the love in his facial expression. At one point, he sneaks a glance over at David; his gaze is completely focused on the video, and he has Patrick’s favorite soft and fond smile on his face. He’s content to just watch David watch the video for a while, until David eventually notices and blushes, turning away for a moment. Patrick waits for him to turn back around, leaning in for a kiss once he does.

Once the video ends, David slips his phone back into his pocket and turns in his chair to face Patrick. “So much of our relationship happened here. You asking me out, me calling you my boyfriend, us saying ‘I love you…’”

“Your olive branch,” Patrick adds, and David nods.

“My olive branch,” he repeats. He’s quiet for a moment before he smirks. “Our back room adventures.”

Patrick snorts, which he knows is incredibly incorrect, but he can’t help it. “Adventures. That’s certainly one way to put it.”

“I would be very willing to add another back room adventure to the list, but I planned this day for us, so we’re going to stick to it. Though you may still want to check the back room for a moment,” David says.

Patrick stands and walks behind the counter, peeking his head into the back room. He immediately sees the next sticky note on the back of the couch they made out on perhaps too frequently in the early days of their relationship, and he laughs to himself as he pulls it off the couch. _3: where’s the bear?_ “You’re taking us hiking, David? Willingly?” he calls to David.

“Yes?” David replies. “I am willing to compromise for romance _sometimes_ , you know.”

Patrick smiles, stepping back into the main room. “If you say so, David.”

“That hike wasn’t so bad, okay, I can handle it,” David says, standing and putting the chairs back in their places. “Come on, before I change my mind.”

———

They’re halfway through the hike when Patrick realizes that David hasn’t complained even once.

This is the first time they’ve hiked together since the day of the proposal, and Patrick had expected at least a few muttered complaints about the dirt or the September heat or the incline, but every time Patrick glances over at David, he has a genuine smile on his face. He’s not sure if David’s conscious of it, or if it’s his natural reaction to returning to such a significant location, but Patrick is so happy, so proud of how far David has come from the quasi-intervention that he and Stevie had given him years earlier.

As they near the top and the view beyond, Patrick slows his paces, reaching behind him for David’s hand. David slides it into Patrick’s and gives it a squeeze, seeming not to mind the sweat that has accumulated in the creases. They’re both breathless by the time they emerge into the familiar clearing, but their identical beaming smiles reveal that neither of them really minds.

“I still feel so awful for almost ruining the perfect day you planned for us,” David says as they sit on a towel that he’d tossed into a bag along with some cheese and wine from the store. “I couldn’t have possibly been more selfish that day, and you deserve so much better than that.”

Patrick shakes his head. “You so don’t need to apologize. You proved how much you cared about me, about us, when you insisted we keep going and finish the hike, and I’m so glad we did because I’m so happy with how the proposal happened.”

“Well I would hope so,” David says, glancing down at the four gold rings that he still wore on his right hand, his gold wedding band the only ring on his left hand now. “If you hadn’t been happy with us getting engaged, I would have been concerned since we are now a whole year into marriage.”

“A whole year, huh,” Patrick says. “I never thought I could be this happy in marriage, you know.”

“I didn’t even think I’d get married at all, happily or unhappily, so you’ve got me beat there,” David replies immediately, sadness passing briefly across his face before his soft smile returned. “I think we won, Patrick.”

“What do you mean?” Patrick asks.

“I mean, like, this was so beyond our wildest dreams that the possibility barely crossed our minds, but this is our life now. We spend every day happy and in love and far, far away from the before parts of our lives. We really made this happen for ourselves.”

“We really did,” Patrick replies. “Shall we?” He gestures to the cheese board and wine bottle that David had laid out in front of them.

David nods, reaching for the bottle and the plastic wine glasses he’d reluctantly agreed to bringing instead of glass ones. Once he manages to get the cork out, he pours wine into each glass, handing one of them to Patrick and taking a large sip out of the other.

“I love you,” David says, setting the glass down carefully next to him.

“I love you too, David,” Patrick replies.

Somehow, Patrick doesn’t notice the next sticky note until he and David had finished all of the wine and cheese and packed everything back up into the bag. It’s sitting on the rock Patrick had sat on before getting down on one knee to propose, and it’s held down by two small rocks to ensure that it doesn’t fly away. “David, was that here this whole time?” Patrick asks, picking it up. “Or did you somehow put it there when I wasn’t looking?”

David tucks his lips between his teeth for a moment before revealing the truth. “I paid Ted to hike up here this morning and put it here, and by paid, I mean I gave him a couple of our new cat hair scarves.” Patrick opens his mouth to ask a follow up question, but before he can get the words out, David adds, “I paid for them, I paid for them!” Patrick chuckles, because of course that was exactly what he was about to ask.

“What does the note say?” David asks, as if he doesn’t already know.

Patrick humors him by reading it out loud to him. “It says, _4: happy ending_. So we’re going back to the house for a massage then?”

David rolls his eyes, though Patrick catches him holding back laughter. “No, Patrick, we are not doing that,” he says in a deadpan tone. There’s silence for a moment as they lock eyes, causing laughter to burst right out of them as the quiet becomes unbearable. “Come on, you know where we’re actually going, right?”

“Town Hall,” Patrick replies.

“Mmm hmm,” David says.

“Ready to head back down?” Patrick asks. David nods and takes the lead, familiar enough with the path now that he doesn’t need Patrick’s help as much. The warmth that fills Patrick’s chest could power their house for an entire winter.

———

David doesn’t know this, but he’s not the only one who has something planned for their anniversary at Town Hall that day. Patrick had a surprise in the works for weeks leading up to their anniversary, so the fact that David’s romantic scavenger hunt led them right to Town Hall worked out perfectly.

When they walk inside, the only person in the room is Ronnie, seated at her desk with a book. “Slow day?” Patrick asks, and she looks up at them with a smile. She’s forgiven him since the whole bathroom incident, and Patrick has done his best to build a sort of friendship with her. It’s a work in progress to be sure, but it’s something.

“Yeah, but what else is new.” Ronnie sits up and sets her book to the side. “What can I do for you boys?”

“Oh, we’re just here to revisit our wedding venue,” David begins, but Patrick corrects him.

“Actually, I have some paperwork to sign and turn in,” he says, taking the folded papers out of his pocket. David’s eyebrows furrow, so Patrick hands him the forms and watches as David’s expression shifts from confusion to shock to fondness in a matter of seconds.

They didn’t have the conversation about last names when they were initially planning their wedding, but Patrick had mentioned it one night while they ate dinner. It was something that had been on his mind for a while, but didn’t want to bring it up during the wedding planning so that he wouldn’t add to David’s stress. Once they had settled into married life, something that Patrick still found unbelievable in the best way, Patrick decided that it was time to talk about it. He’d told David that it would mean a lot to him to be able to take David’s last name, that it would really solidify for him the shift from dating to forever, but he didn’t want to decide anything without discussing it with David first. David had wholeheartedly been in support of the change, but was adamant that it only happen if Patrick wanted it to.

Patrick definitely wanted it to.

“You’re sure?” David says now, tears forming in his eyes, an echo of the proposal. “I only want you to do this if you absolutely want to.”

“I want to, David, really,” Patrick replies. “I’ve wanted to since before I proposed.”

This convinces David, so Patrick takes the papers from his hands and pulls a pen out of his pocket, signing them and handing them to Ronnie. “It’ll take a little bit to process and to get everything changed on all of your legal documents, so don’t, like, put your new last name on your taxes or anything like that, but you’re good to go, Patrick Rose,” she says, filing the papers away. “Congratulations! Oh, and a little birdie told me I’m supposed to give you these.” She reaches under the desk and hands Patrick a bouquet of white roses wrapped in blue ribbon with a pink sticky note attached to them. He brings them to his nose and takes a whiff of the sweet scent before detaching the note and handing the flowers David along with a kiss on his now tear-stained cheek.

The note reads, _5: follow your heart_. His brows furrow in confusion for a moment, and of course David notices immediately. “I’m your heart, Patrick Rose,” he says with a sniffle. “So follow me.” He turns and walks out the door with the flowers against his heart and a skip in his step. Patrick follows.

———

When they arrive at their destination, it’s somewhere Patrick doesn’t recognize, which in a town like Schitt’s Creek is saying quite a lot.

“I found this field of flowers while driving to a vendor visit the other day and I just had to bring you here,” David explains. “I wanted the scavenger hunt to end with a new place and new memories, so.”

“It’s beautiful,” Patrick says. The field around them is covered in flowers of every color, an explosion of rainbow florals the likes of which Patrick has never seen in person. He takes a moment to just marvel in it all. The beauty of nature. His husband beside him. Celebrating their first anniversary together. “How did I get so lucky, David?”

“I could ask you the same question.” David replies, stepping into Patrick’s space and pressing his lips against his husband’s. They stand there in the late-summer air, lost in each other, nothing else mattering in that moment.

When they finally break apart for air, David leans his forehead against Patrick’s. “Can we take some photos while we’re here?” he asks. “I want to have them to commemorate today.”

“Of course, David. Did you bring the camera?” He’d bought David a professional-quality camera for his most recent birthday, and witnessing how David captures the world through the camera’s lens reveals a part of David that he hadn’t had the chance to see yet. He’s learned a bit about photography along the way, too; after all, if David’s going to ask him to take photos, they’re going to be the best ones ever taken in this town. He offers a silent apology to Ray as he accepts the camera from David. Wait, speaking of Ray —

“Is there a reason we didn’t stop at Ray’s today? Or at the motel?” Patrick asks as David finds the perfect location for a photoshoot.

David smiles sheepishly. “Is it bad if I say I didn’t want to have to deal with Ray today? And my parents aren’t living at the motel anymore, so it’s not like we could just go into my old room.”

“No, it’s not bad, and fair enough, that makes sense,” Patrick replies. “Ready?” he asks, holding up the camera.

As they look through the photos together while sitting side by side on a towel in the field, Patrick knows they’re his favorites they’ve ever taken. Based on David’s proud smile, Patrick can tell he feels the same.

As they’re getting ready to leave and go home for further celebrations, Patrick has an idea. “Does this field have a name?” he asks.

David shakes his head. “I don’t think so,” he replies. “If it does, I don’t know about it.”

“What if we named it, just for us?”

“Did you have something in mind?”

“What about the Rose Garden?” Patrick suggests.

“There aren’t any roses in this field, Patrick,” David replies. “That’s a very misleading name.”

“Well, we discovered this field, and our last name is Rose, so I think we should claim it as our own. Hence, Rose Garden,” he explains.

“Oh,” David says quietly. He has that teary-eyed look on his face again, and Patrick wipes a stray tear from his cheek. “It’s perfect.”

“You think so?” Patrick asks.

David nods his agreement, pulling Patrick into a kiss.

“Happy anniversary, Patrick,” David says when they part.

“Happy anniversary, David.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so much for reading, and thank you to the organizers of SC Season 7 for making this happen!! I hope I'll be able to participate in more of these in the future. Feel free to send me prompts or just say hi over on tumblr.


End file.
